BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CORE) says it has signed a two-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) to cooperate on supporting the energy transition within the Caribbean.
The MOU was signed within the margins of the recently concluded Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit in Trinidad and Tobago.
The CRE said the MOU is anchored within the CARICOM-Korea partnership, which, since 2007, has been supporting cooperation in various fields.
It said that since 2015, the partnership has gradually intensified its focus on climate change and related areas, such as sustainable energy.
CRE executive director, Dr. Gary Jackson, said that partnerships, such as this one with the KEA, are essential to the agency because the Centre is entirely self-funded and relies heavily on contributions from development partners to finance its operations and programs.
He also said that the options and opportunities for the region, in general, and the Centre, in particular, to learn lessons and gain insights from South Korea and the KEA were invaluable to the sustainable energy aspirations of the region and would contribute positively to the notional global ambitions for achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“Energy security has long been a challenge for Caribbean countries. But advanced technologies are driving change within the global energy sector, and innovative technologies are transforming how energy is sourced, converted, delivered, and consumed.
“Improvements in the performance and reductions in the pricing of renewable and new storage technologies, as well as advances in digitalization, are enhancing our capabilities to make prospects for the once elusive energy security within the region attainable,” Jackson said.
Under the MOU, CRE and KEA will, in addition to sharing information and intelligence and exchanging knowledge and expertise, cooperate through joint actions on renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy management, and other areas that support the energy transition.
These initiatives are expected to include feasibility studies and pilot projects in emerging areas such as marine renewable energy, grid modernization, innovative distributed energy systems, and electric vehicles.
Even as the region seeks to pursue initiatives, programs, projects, and activities that will yield global carbon abatement benefits, the focus is on ensuring that the actions simultaneously fulfill the longer-term economic and climate resilience goals.
The CRE is a CARICOM specialized agency established in April 2018 with an energy-exclusive mandate to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency investments, markets, and industries within the region.
Established in 1980, the KEA is a governmental agency of South Korea that has a mandate to, among other things, improve energy efficiency in the industry, transportation, and building sectors and promote renewable energy.
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